At the 9th Meeting of the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Group held in early September, the WHSRN Executive Office launched the document Seven Basic Guidelines for Assessing Impacts on Shorebirds and their Habitats.
This work provides recommendations to guide environmental impact assessments of development projects that affect habitats and/or sites important to shorebirds during their life cycles. It provides basic criteria for potential impacts, as well as recommendations for management, mitigation, and monitoring measures.
As the first edition of this document, it should be considered a living document which will evolve and be updated with new information. This document serves as a reference for the formal procedures and mechanisms that different countries use for environmental impact assessment of development projects. Targeted to government agencies, private environmental consultants, non-governmental organizations, technicians and specialists, an effort was made to put into a common language, the different concepts and denominations used in the systems and mechanisms of environmental impact assessment throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. Users of this document will need to adapt the contents to the different local regions and countries.
Left: Chapter Five – How to mitigate impacts on shorebirds. Right: Chapter Seven – Management Plans and Monitoring Shorebirds
This publication contributes to the work of professionals and institutions participating in environmental assessment of projects involving species or populations of shorebirds and their habitats. It focuses on those who prepare the studies, those who evaluate the impact, those who make decisions in the public and private spheres, and those who oversee and/or monitor compliance. In addition, this document also provides communities with access to information so that they can participate in an informed manner in the environmental impact assessment process and share their opinions.
The document was presented by Manomet’s Policy and Governance Specialist, Diego Luna Quevedo, during the workshop “Challenges for environmental impact assessment in critical sites for shorebirds” and was commented by a panel of specialists with the participation of Charif Tala (Department of Species Conservation, Ministry of Environment-Chile), Jorge Meriggi (National Biodiversity Directorate, Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development Argentina), Yuri Beraun (Sustainable Conservation of Ecosystems and Species Directorate, Ministry of the Environment, Peru) and Natalia Martínez-Curci (National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET) of Argentina and Fellow of the Coastal Solutions Program).
Cover Photo: Flock of shorebirds flying. Photo: Antonio Larrea.
